A trip to the “Far Side of The World”

Greetings everyone! I know you all are quite excited to see what I have to say about Jimmy Buffett next, and as always, I’m happy to get into it. Where I left off, I explained how we are now in Buffett’s Millennium Era, and fittingly enough; we have now crossed into the 2000s! Congratulations everyone, the computers didn’t explode, and we have a new album from Jimmy; what more could we ask for? Buffett comes back to earth, and instead of writing from the moon, here we will see what he has to say from “The Far Side of the World!” 

The first song off the album is “Blue Guitar,” a song about a blue guitar I presume? The song does mention a guitar; however, it is more a metaphor for being able to live a life free of constraints and pointless obligations. Buffett explains that we can’t control time and the weather, but just because things are out of our control doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t stop us from doing what we want. So, use your intuition, get less competition from the clock, and trust in yourself; after all, “you only know one song, play it right or wrong, ’cause the truth is always somewhere in –between.” Overall, this is a nice and catchy song to start us off. 

“Mademoiselle” is a lovely little song that is full of soothing acoustic instrumentals. It’s a love filled melody, in which Buffett only asks, “Mademoiselle, voulez-vous danser?” In French, he is asking if the woman he is with would have this dance. It is a sweet song that makes you want to dance with someone close.  

Remember when I mentioned how Buffett had a hotel down in the old St. Bart? Well, “Autour Du Rocher” is a song based on and named after that hotel, or as Buffett would describe it, “a patio bar with funky rooms and an outdoor disco with bad wiring,”, aka a nightclub. The song details the experience of this place and the debauchery that occurred there. It was a place of parties, business, and everything else in between. This rather unholy site would be shut down by the Gendarmes (French police);, however, the fire is what would do the place in, leaving only memories in the ruins of the site. This song features French in its chorus, and long interludes and spoken parts, where Buffett explains the history of the place. Now, for this song, I actually don’t like the studio version that much, but due in no part to Buffett’s singing or storytelling. The reason is that the song features electronic percussion;, and that just does not fit the Buffett vibe at all, and it just is not my thing. However luckily, on the 2007 “Live in Anguilla” album, we would get a live version of the song with live percussions, making it much more my vibe. Give the song a listen regardless, it is an interesting experience.  

A beautiful song from this album is “Savannah Fare You Well.” The instrumentals are acoustic, which add to the somewhat mysterious and fall like feel of the song, which is invoked through its imagery. The song emits the feelings of change, contemplativeness, and, somewhat, dread. Two lines that exemplify these feelings are “there’s something in the wind tonight, some kinda change of weather,” and “now I could stay another day or two, but what’s the use of stalling? Deep in the winter even holdout leaves start fallin’.” This is just a song that is fun to listen to due to the lyricism and the mystical vibes that surround it. The song and the energy it emits makes it one of the best off the album, no doubt. 

“All the Ways I Want You” is another song of longing, something we see often from Buffett. It’s a simple song, but a line I like a lot is how he says “stars look down and laugh at me, I ought to take a bow. Don’t have to tell them life’s hard sometimes, there’s one fallin’ now.” It just feels rather down to earth and humble, just staring at the stars under the night sky. Overall, it’s a fine song; it’s slow and takes it time as a linear song without a well-defined chorus. 

That is it for now; the album so far is very lyrically focused, and it takes its time to describe interesting and unique images. It makes for a fun listening experience for me at least. Now, an interesting fact before I leave. The album cover of this album looks ridiculous: Buffett is leaning up against a wall, and next to him is a window and on the other side is a dirt road leading straight into the window with an elephant walking on it. What is even going on here?  Well, this is the second version of the album cover actually. See, this album came out in early 2002, and the original cover had Buffett riding a camel in the desert, embodying the idea of the “far side of the world.”. Well, a few months before this came out, a certain something happened in New York City, and so now Buffett riding a camel is not the best look. Hence, the stupid album cover we have now. Anyways, thank you for listening, and until next time!